


The Final Farewell

by Eurasian_Lynx



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: But Victor couldn't be happier, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Mild Angst, Mild Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 06:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12150270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eurasian_Lynx/pseuds/Eurasian_Lynx
Summary: Victor Nikiforov is due to skate one final time.He does, and it's glorious.But now comes the moment so many have been dreading since he was a child.Leaving the ice for one, final time.Except, while some may find it a moment for sorrow and grief, he seems to have other thoughts on the situation.After all, when one door closes, another one opens.And he meets this new chapter in his life with open arms.





	The Final Farewell

Yuuri couldn't hear the music that was playing from the rink's speakers.

The only music he heard was the song that Victor's blades sang as they cut into the ice. The scraping and scratching sound of a lifetime of challenge, of competition, of victory. An homage to everything the man had done throughout his career. A final farewell to the competitive life he was leaving behind in just a few minutes.

The younger man stood, watching his fiance soar across the ice with emotion seeming to pour from his flesh. For once, he truly understood what Victor meant when he always said that 'Yuuri could make music with his body'.

He couldn't hear the music on the speakers, even though the rink was silent save for it and the sound of Victor's blades.

He didn't need to, all he needed was Victor.

He stood in his blade guards, jacket slung haphazardly over his shoulders as he waited at the rink's exit. He couldn't have cared less about his appearance if he tried.

Because this was it, wasn't it? One final skate, one final farewell.

After this, Victor would never again set foot on the ice competitively. His body simply couldn't take it any longer. Nor his mind, but that was a worry for the two of them, not the general public. For all others, this final exhibition skate was the ending of a era, the era of Victor Nikiforov. He had won gold again, of course he had, edging his fiance out by only a handful of points. Yuuri thought it was a wonderful way for his beloved to end his career. (Victor had been more excited about having Yuuri kiss his medal.)

And what a career it was.

And it showed today, in the way the silver-haired man skated.

It was tricky technology, but they made it work with effort and time. A fabric that, depending on the way the light shown upon it, would reflect back at you one of the many famous costumes the man had worn throughout his career. With every angle change you got a new one, another snippet in time reflected on the man's body. Yuuri thought it was absolutely beautiful.

Victor's blades sang against the ice, and Yuuri didn't realize he was crying until the trickle of his tears fell onto his hands.

It was almost over, wasn't it? Victor's final program was drawing to a close.

Yuuri wasn't sure if he wanted it to be over.

But then it was.

And Victor was looking right at him, chest heaving as he panted for breath, costume reflecting the purple of his 'Stammi Vicino' costume with the way he was positioned in Yuuri's gaze.

The black-haired man felt his hands grip the fabric of his jacket unwittingly, a part of him still taken by surprise that it was over. Just like that.

It was over.

But then Victor smiled.

It was a smile Yuuri knew well, but one he also knew the general public had little intimacy with.

Because it was a real smile, not the one he wore when giving interviews. Not the mask of 'Victor Nikiforov, Living Legend'. But of 'Victor'.

Just 'Victor.'

And Victor was skating towards the edge of the rink like his life depended on it, seeming to not care a whit that the moment he left the ice, he would never set foot on it as a competitor again. The momentous atmosphere that the audience in the arena felt so well didn't seem to weigh upon him at all. Instead, he shot towards the finishing line, coming to a halt right before the edge of the ice. For a moment, Yuuri had to wonder if he was having second thoughts.

But no, of course he wasn't.

"So... I suppose this is the end of my career, then. So that makes this rather like a goodbye then, wouldn't you say?"

Yuuri didn't have a chance to get words out before he suddenly found his fiance's face almost directly in front of his own.

"So does that mean I get a goodbye kiss?"

The silver-haired man was smiling brighter than the sun, eyes sparkling as he looked at Yuuri expectantly.

A beat, then two.

Yuuri rolled his eyes with a fond smile, reaching up to pull Victor closer.

The silver-haired man stepped off the ice and into his fiance's arms, leaning down to steal a kiss.

He left the ice behind that day, and as he curled his fingers about his soon-to-be-husband's, Victor Nikiforov, the Living Legend, an Era in and of himself, found he couldn't have been happier.

Because he'd already won the best gold of all.

**Author's Note:**

> Please enjoy my 1 am, impulse-written angst-fluff.
> 
> Somehow I got to this from listening to 'Applause' by Lady Gaga and I'm not really sure how but I'm rolling with it.


End file.
